Why does Hockey Canada keep inviting Devan Dubnyk if they don't trust him to play goal?

Two games into his third consecutive “appearance” at the World Hockey Championships, Edmonton Oilers goaltender Devan Dubnyk sports some pretty remarkable lifetime stats: a goals-against average of 0.00 and a save percentage of 1.000.

Unfortunately those stats come with a pretty heavy caveat, as Dubnyk has played just part of one period over those two-plus tournaments, stopping all 8 shots he faced in 14 mop-up minutes against international minnows France in the 2011 tournament.

Dubnyk was on the outside looking in in 2010, when Chris Mason was the starter and some random dude named Chad Johnson somehow won the backup role, playing parts of three games. Dubnyk was himself a young pup at that time, having just made his way into the NHL earlier that season. Still, it was an ominous sign when he found himself behind Johnson, who has subsequently played all of one period in the National Hockey League while Dubnyk has continued to build into the starter’s job in Edmonton. Mason, meanwhile, has posted sub-.900 save percentages in each of the two seasons since.

Last year Dubnyk was the eldest and most experienced of three young goalies who vied for the job, yet Toronto’s James Reimer and L.A.’s Jonathan Bernier ultimately earned the coach’s trust while Dubnyk only got the consolation appearance in garbage time against France. Once again applying the statistics of hindsight, Dubnyk had a better year than either Reimer or Bernier in 2011-12, playing in more games with a better save percentage that either. Yet last year he wasn’t given a chance to show his stuff in meaningful action.

Adding to the frustration of this fan of both Canada and Dubnyk, both years the red maple leaf crashed out in the quarter finals with subpar goaltending being a contributing factor on both occasions. No realistic way anybody but Mason was going to play medal round games in 2010, but the sight of Bernier allowing 2 goals on 4 third-period shots to blow a one-goal lead last year was a little harder to swallow.

Thus I was more than a little surprised when Dubnyk — who also spent the entirety of the 2006 World Junior Hockey Championships on the bench backing up the immortal Justin Pogge — accepted another invite to the Worlds this spring. I correctly figured that there was no way he was getting involved in another three-man game of musical chairs, but it turns out that a two-man system is not necessarily fair either.

With Canada opening the tournament with back-to-back games against middling hockey powers Slovakia and USA, it seemed a no-brainer that both Dubnyk and Cam Ward would start a game apiece. That’s how they split the pre-tournament exhibitions against Switzerland, with Dubnyk winning a 2-1 shootout decision and Ward backstopping a 4-2 Canadian win. Moreover, it was no surprise when the more senior netminder from Carolina got the start in the opener. But it was a bit of a shock when Brent Sutter came back with Ward in the back half of those back-to-backs.

Team Canada coach Brent Sutter

It was a decision that bit Sutter and Canadian hockey fans on the butt, as Ward had a pretty miserable time of it Saturday in a 5-4 overtime loss to the Americans. True, he was tested with 46 shots, and found the highlight reels with one superb emergency paddle save in the late stages of the first. But he was also lit up for four bad goals, as such snipers as Jim Slater (wrist shot from long range), Patrick Dwyer (wraparound after Ward handed him the puck, then failed to get across), and Nate Thompson (weak backhander that found a hole between Ward’s knees) all found the range in regulation, before Jack Johnson decided things in overtime with an outside wrist shot through a screen for which Ward wasn’t even set.

Cam Ward is a good goalie who had a bad game, no particular crime in that. But it does bring into focus questions about why a guy who hasn’t played in a month is suddenly thrust into both ends of a back-to-back, especially with a capable second goalie wearing a ballcap on the bench. While Ward has seniority, Dubnyk was every bit his equal statistically in 2011-12, and was the hotter goalie down the stretch. It’s been three months and twenty appearances since Dubnyk last allowed five goals in a game.

Worth noting that Ward and Sutter have a history, as the netminder played his junior hockey with Sutter’s Red Deer Rebels from 2001-04. Ward also has a background with Hockey Canada, having backstopped Canada to gold in 2007 and silver in Quebec City in 2008 (losing the gold medal game 5-4 in overtime on the dreaded puck-over-glass powerplay, for those aficionados of weird coincidences).

Still, if Brent Sutter really is auditioning for the Oilers’ head coaching job as some have speculated, it’s tough to justify why he would risk alienating his future goalie before the games even start to become meaningful. No doubt he will throw DD a bone with the start in Canada’s next game — against France of all teams — but it’ll be interesting to see what happens when Canada plays consecutive games against Switzerland and Finland later next week. After three consecutive years of playing the good soldier for Hockey Canada, Devan Dubnyk deserves to start one of those games.

It has to be a little unnerving to Oiler fans that respected international coaches like Craig MacTavish (2010), Ken Hitchcock (2011), and now Brent Sutter have all seemed reluctant to give Devan Dubnyk a shot at the IIHF World Championships.

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